Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/45

] with that reputation and wealth which made all misadventures seem tolerable unto them." Willoughby and Chancellor were divided by storms, and after doubling the "dreadful and mistie North Cape," the terrors of a polar winter surprised them, but with very different issue. The former sought shelter in an obscure harbor of Lapland, to die a fearful and a lingering death. In the following spring his retreat was discovered, the corpses of the frozen sailors lay about the ship, Willoughby was found dead in his cabin, his journal detailing the horrible sufferings to which they had been reduced. Chancellor, more fortunate, entered the White Sea, and found a secure shelter in the harbor of Archangel. Here the Muscovites received their first foreign visitors with great hospitality, and Chancellor, on learning the vastness of the empire he had discovered, repaired to Moscow, and presented to the czar, John Vasilowitz, a letter with which each ship had been furnished by Edward VI. The czar, who was not deficient in sagacity, saw the advantages likely to accrue from opening a trade with the western nations of Europe, and accordingly treated Chancellor with courtesy and attention. He, also, by a letter to the king, invited the trade of England, under promises of ample protection and favor.

The spirit of maritime adventure, though not so active during the reign of Mary, was still on the increase. The accession and reign of Elizabeth afforded full opportunity for its large development. "The domestic tranquillity of the kingdom," says Dr. Robertson, "maintained almost without interruption, during the course of a long and prosperous reign; the peace with foreign nations, that subsisted more than twenty years after Elizabeth was seated on the throne; the queen's attentive economy, which exempted her subjects from the burden of taxes oppressive to trade; the popularity of her administration; were all favorable to commercial enterprise, and called it forth into vigorous exertion. The discerning eye of Elizabeth having early perceived that the security of a kingdom environed by the sea depended on its naval force, she began her government with adding to the number and strength of the royal navy; she filled her arsenals with naval stores; she built several ships of great force, according to the ideas of that age, and encouraged her subjects to imitate her example, that they might no longer depend on foreigners, from whom the English had hitherto purchased all vessels of any considerable burden. By those efforts the skill of the English artificers was improved, the numbers of sailors increased, and the attention of the public turned to the navy, as the most important national object." The queen gave every encouragement to her subjects to trade to with Russia, to seek to penetrate into Persia by land, and in any and every way to open new paths to commercial enterprise and activity.

The attempt to discover a